Netflix’s “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” includes both made-up killers and real ones, like Richard Speck, also known as the Birdman.
Speck was a mass murderer who killed eight nursing students in 1966. In the “Monster” series, he’s shown writing fan letters to Ed Gein. But who was Richard Speck, and did he really admire Gein?
Richard Speck was born in Illinois in 1941. He once said that his birth was followed by chaos, referring to the Pearl Harbor attack the next day.
In July 1966, Speck broke into a Chicago home and killed eight nursing students. One woman survived by hiding under a bed and later helped the police catch him.
Speck was caught after trying to commit suicide in a hotel. The doctor noticed his “Born to Raise Hell” tattoo, which had been mentioned in reports.
He was found guilty of murder in 1967 and sentenced to death. However, his sentence was changed to 400 to 1,200 years in prison after the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.
Speck was called the Birdman because he once cared for an injured sparrow in his jail cell. When told he couldn’t keep it, he killed the bird.
In “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” Speck calls Gein his idol and says he wanted to be like him. However, there’s no proof that they ever actually wrote letters to each other.
Ryan Murphy, the executive producer, said the series shows how Ed Gein influenced other “dark creatures” like Richard Speck and Ted Bundy.
Speck stayed in prison until he died of a suspected heart attack in 1991, one day before his 50th birthday.
Besides “Monster: The Ed Gein Story,” Speck also appeared in the Netflix series “Mindhunter.”
